It constantly comments on itself and its plot; it knowingly and cheekily busts tropes. .
The firm had just agreed to a $550 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that it knowingly sold its clients financial instruments meant to fail.
But 'Thirteen" is just as accurate in its lighter moments: it knowingly captures the squealing, undirected velocity of junior high school girls and how their friendships can blossom and curdle like love affairs.
Shares in Merrill Lynch rose 25 cents, to $36.50, after the firm denied it knowingly helped Enron distort its financial problems.
If the government commits to build a new runway, it knowingly signs up to breaking its own "legally binding" climate change commitments on emissions reductions and attempts to tackle the defining global threat facing humanity.
This year, the widows of the Americans killed in the attack sued Twitter, alleging that it knowingly permitted the Islamic State to use its social media platform to spread the militant group's violent message, recruiting and raising funds.
It comes amid increased enforcement scrutiny of the company, which has faced blistering criticism that it shorted - or bet against - the mortgage market before it collapsed and that it knowingly sold bundles of bad mortgages to its clients.
The security company RSA has denied that it knowingly weakened the encryption it used in its products as part of a secret contract with the US's National Security Agency.
